Displaying items by tag: cloud

IBM has reported a 2.5% decrease in revenues for the third consecutive quarter this year.

For the third quarter of 2020, the US tech company reported $17.6 billion compared to $18 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.

However, their net income experienced a slight increase, amounting to $1.7 billion due to the company’s cost-cutting strategies, according to the earnings report.

Shares were reportedly down by 2.6% in after-market trades however, it experienced some growth in its cloud computing business. In fact, IBM shares are down 6% since the beginning of the year.

The US has been persistent in its global campaign against Huawei and some other Chinese tech giants such as WeChat and TikTok.

Emerging reports have been pointing towards renewed pressure on South Korea and a number of European operators to replace cloud infrastructure and facilities which were supplied by Chinese vendors.

It has been reported that the US has urged Korean authorities to subscribe to its Clean Network initiative, an initiative that was received with a great deal of criticism a few months ago, amidst a call between the two nations’ politicians.

It has been disclosed that Korea left it up to private companies to decide what to do with their equipment and which vendor to use.

For some time now, the US has been carrying out a long-running campaign against Huawei with regards to its 5G equipment. This has drastically affected the supply chain of operators across the world. The US has been relentless in trying to persuade its allies in Europe to also scrap Chinese vendors’ cloud infrastructure, including but not limited to Huawei.

US representatives recently met with Deutsche Telekom and Masmovil to raise security concerns in relation to data center and cloud infrastructure provided by Chinese vendors.

This comes as the US ramped up its efforts to influence tech policies across the rest of the world. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a memorandum of understanding in an effort to ensure that developing countries avoid working with “untrusted vendors” and encourage them to use “open, interoperable, reliable and secure” infrastructure.

However, despite the US’s efforts to undermine Huawei and other Chinese vendors, there is still no conclusive evidence that justifies their actions to target and harm their business abroad.

US President Donald Trump has given his approval to the proposed deal between ByteDance, Oracle and Walmart for TikTok’s US operations. The announcement was made a day after the US Commerce Department issued an order prohibiting business with WeChat and TikTok in order to protect national security.

The agreement will see the establishment of a new company called TikTok Global, with four US directors out of five. Together, Oracle and Walmart would hold 20 percent of the new company, for a still undisclosed price. The final transaction will need to get approval from the relevant US government agencies, as well as from Chinese authorities.

Oracle will take a 12.5 percent stake in TikTok Global and will store the data of US data in its own cloud infrastructure. Oracle CEO Safra Catz said Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud.

Oracle already announced that it was chosen to become TikTok’s secure cloud technology provider. The company believes this technical decision by TikTok was heavily influenced by Zoom’s recent success in moving a large portion of its video conferencing capacity to the Oracle Public Cloud.

“TikTok picked Oracle’s new Generation 2 Cloud infrastructure because it’s much faster, more reliable, and more secure than the first generation technology currently offered by all the other major cloud providers,” said Oracle Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison.

“In the 2020 Industry CloudPath survey that IDC recently released where it surveyed 935 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) customers on their satisfaction with the top IaaS vendors including Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM and Google Cloud.... Oracle IaaS received the highest satisfaction score.”

“As a part of this agreement, TikTok will run on the Oracle Cloud and Oracle will become a minority investor in TikTok Global,” said Oracle CEO Safra Catz. “Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world. This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”

ByteDance rejected Microsoft’s offer for its TikTok operations in the US and chose Oracle as “trusted tech partner”. Microsoft had indicated at the beginning of August that it was interested in acquiring TikTok's US operations, but later announced that bid had been rejected.

Microsoft expressed disappointment in the rejection and said it was confident its proposal would have been good for TikTok users, while protection national security interests. 

"ByteDance let us know they would not be selling TikTok's US operations to Microsoft," the US tech giant said in a statement.

 "We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok's users, while protecting national security interests," it added.

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. announced general availability of its Zoom Phone cloud phone service in 25 additional countries and territories, as well as a new, drastically simplified telephone service plan for companies with locations across the globe. Zoom now provides local telephone service and domestic calling in over 40 countries and territories around the world.

The new countries and territories where Zoom Phone supports local phone numbers are: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

This expanded geographic coverage allows Zoom customers to migrate away from their legacy phone systems and consolidate business communications into Zoom’s video-first unified communications platform. To help customers streamline their communication carrier portfolio, Zoom has launched the Global Select plan. With this new plan, a company can purchase domestic calling in 40 plus countries and territories where Zoom provides PSTN service, for a single price.

While many companies with locations around the world are responsible for negotiating telephone service agreements with various carriers, Zoom aims to simplify that process. In addition to local service in 40 plus countries and territories, Zoom Phone provides telephone connectivity covering the world through its Bring Your Own Carrier model, including in markets where telephone service is highly regulated. Zoom will also continue to provide an easy solution for companies that do not require individual direct numbers for every employee. For these customers, the Zoom Phone Pro plan for cloud telephony service is available starting at $8 USD a user per month. “Zoom Phone is changing the game,” said Elka Popova, VP of Connected Work Research at Frost & Sullivan. “Now, with an innovative plan model and availability of its successful Zoom Phone product in 40 plus countries, it will be a compelling option for many multinational customers.”

“As we engage with our customers, they are telling us they want to untangle their global telephony spending and consolidate, much like their move to the cloud,” said Graeme Geddes, Head of Zoom Phone. “In response we developed the Global Select plan and our expansion across the globe.” What Zoom Phone customers are saying: "At ServiceNow, we rely on Zoom daily to keep our global teams, customers, and prospects connected,” said Tomer Mekhty, Vice President of Global IT Operations, ServiceNow. “We’ve been long-time Zoom platform users and we are excited to have the opportunity to add Zoom Phone to Zoom’s full stack of communication and collaboration tools. Zoom Phone enhances our stack of communication and collaboration, covering voice, video, and chat all in one. It makes it possible to transition from voice to video calls seamlessly and achieve an approach to communication that best suits our collaborative and innovative culture.”

“At Cision, our entire team has found Zoom Phone easy to use and very reliable even when network conditions are challenging for our remote workforce,” said Eric Rabuse, Head of Telephony at Cision. “It offers voicemail transcriptions, three-way calling, a centralized portal for managing all voice operations securely, and many other features that our teams enjoy. The intuitive call queues are easy for users to manage and empowers our teams to make adjustments to their call handling without IT assistance. Zoom’s constant innovation across the entire platform puts a smile on our faces as they frequently surprise us with new features and releases. Just when you thought phones were old school, Zoom made them so much cooler with direct integrations into their meetings platform and CRMs we use daily.”

“I am a long-term Farmers Agency owner. Early on, I recognized the potential of cloud phone systems and have used several vendors over the years,” said Kevin Carda, Farmers Insurance Agency Owner. “There was always an issue: frequent inconsistent call quality issues, complex interfaces, modem/router issues, and so forth. Being a recent Zoom platform user, I discovered that they have a cloud phone service and it is superb! I was easily guided through the setup process and they helped me design a call management process that best suited my business. They truly have the perfect solution with voice, video, and chat services in a single intuitive interface and a very responsive support team to help you. I am thrilled with Zoom’s suite of products and their support team, and highly recommend Zoom to anyone looking for cutting-edge communication services at a very reasonable price."

Cisco and Rakuten have adopted the world’s first end-to-end fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network.

Cisco played a key role in the development and deployment of the cloud-native virtualized architecture which is currently being used by Rakuten Mobile. Cisco has said that its state-of-the-art highly-automated approach has gained great traction amongst some of the world’s leading telecom operators.

According to Jonathan Davidson, SVP and GM, Cisco Mass-Scale Infrastructure, telecom operators across the world have been investing “30 to 40 billion dollars a year in deploying radio access technology and we still have so many parts of the globe that do not have coverage or do not have decent coverage… This is something that can be transformed with this new approach that Rakuten Mobile has pioneered. You could definitely call it profound.”

Davidson has also predicted that it will be widely adopted in Japan. Adding that, “this is just the beginning. Now we need to get to 5G and we need to scale the infrastructure.”

Cisco has not only supplied them with the IP internet protocol (IP) routers which essentially transport traffic from Rakuten’s radio towers and the cloud radio access network (RAN) into the IP core, but the Telco is also providing them with management orchestration software.

Rakuten Mobile’s CTO, Tareq Amin, stated, “Cisco is playing a crucial role in stitching together the carious elements of our new network.”

“The design approach we mapped out with Cisco is enabling us to deliver high-value services at very affordable prices, enabling our customers to really benefit from our cloud innovation. Scaling of such orchestration function is a challenge,” he continued.

Davidson says that he expects Rakuten Mobile’s network to perform at a very high level due to its software-defined architecture which allows for the fine-tuning of its network in real-time.

 “Any time you do something that has never been done before, there are going to be a lot of challenges that you have to uncover. It always come back to the team and making sure the team is aligned to a joint vision and a joint mission. Tareq is a phenomenal visionary who has got companies that have traditionally been competitors to collaborate and partner in new ways to really achieve something that has not been achieved before,” said Davidson.

In terms of the technology’s performance, there are technical and operational advantages that come to play. In fact, Cisco expects other operators to follow suit and deploy cloud-based RAN.

NVIDIA today launched the NVIDIA® Mellanox ConnectX®-6 Lx SmartNIC — a highly secure and efficient 25/50 gigabit per second (Gb/s) Ethernet smart network interface controller (SmartNIC) — to meet surging growth in enterprise and cloud scale-out workloads.

ConnectX-6 Lx, the 11^th generation product in the ConnectX family, is designed to meet the needs of modern data centers, where 25Gb/s connections are becoming standard for handling demanding workflows, such as enterprise applications, AI and real-time analytics.

The new SmartNIC extends accelerated computing by leveraging software-defined, hardware-accelerated engines to offload more security and network processing from CPUs.

“Modern cloud and enterprise data centers rely on accelerated networking to address their scalability and compute challenges,” said Amit Krig, senior vice president of software and NIC products in NVIDIA’s Mellanox networking business. “ConnectX-6 Lx SmartNIC delivers cost-effective, accelerated and secure networking for the new era of disaggregated, composable data centers.”

Advanced Security

Accelerated security features such as IPsec in-line cryptography and Hardware Root of Trust, and a 10x performance improvement for Connection Tracking, enable Zero Trust security throughout the data center. Best-in-class RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE), advanced virtualization and containerization, and NVMe over Fabrics storage offloads provide highly scalable and performant networking.

“The server industry is rapidly transitioning from 10GbE to 25GbE network speeds with very fast growth expected. With increasing requirements being placed on the network, more offloads need to be performed on SmartNICs,” said Scott Raynovich, founder and chief technologist of Futuriom, a technology research firm. “NVIDIA’s Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx enables SmartNIC offloads, including advanced switching and security, in a cost-efficient 25/50GbE solution.”

Key Features

The Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx provides:

• Two ports of 25Gb/s, or a single port of 50Gb/s, Ethernet connectivity with PCIe Gen 3.0/4.0 x8 host connectivity
• Security features including Hardware Root of Trust, Connection Tracking for stateful L4 firewalls, and in-line IPSec cryptography acceleration
• GPUDirect® RDMA acceleration for NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) storage, scale-out accelerated computing and high-speed video transfer applications
• Zero Touch RoCE (ZTR) for scalable, easy-to-deploy, best-in-class RoCE without switch configuration
• Accelerated switching and packet processing (ASAP2), with built-in SR-IOV and VirtIO hardware offloads for virtualization and containerization, to accelerate software-defined networking and connection tracking for next-generation firewall services

ConnectX-6 Lx is sampling now, with general availability expected in Q3 2020. Like all products in the ConnectX family, it is compatible with the Mellanox SmartNIC software stack. Together with Mellanox Spectrum® switches and the LinkX® family of cables and transceivers, ConnectX SmartNICs enable the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for high-performance networks.

Broad Industry Support

Mellanox SmartNICs and software are used in cloud, hyperscale and enterprise data centers, high performance computing, cybersecurity and financial services systems around the world.

Scott Tease, general manager of High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence at Lenovo Data Center Group, said, “Lenovo offers best-of-breed solutions that are engineered, tested and certified for cloud, HPC, artificial intelligence, and hyperscale computing workloads. Mellanox ConnectX SmartNICs enable secure, efficient, high-speed connectivity that accelerates networks and provides critical business advantages for our clients.”

Rashid Khan, director of networking at Red Hat, said, “Security is critically important for any enterprise data center or cloud deployment. We worked closely with Mellanox to develop Connection Tracking, which helps drive secure upstream and downstream networking capabilities. Connection Tracking enables software-defined networking and security to lock down critical resources and data; it offers stateful security at each server, and can be offloaded onto Mellanox ConnectX SmartNICs, reducing CPU cycles for optimal hardware utilization.”

Michael McNerney, vice president of Marketing and Network Security at Supermicro, stated, “As the leader in high-performance server and storage system technology, Supermicro strives to provide customers with superior performance, features and improved TCO to maximize the value from their data center. As more and more enterprises transition from 10GbE to 25GbE, ConnectX-6 Lx offers our customers a feature-packed 25GbE SmartNIC that can accelerate their network and applications at a competitive price point.”

Instead of going with cloud giants Amazon or Microsoft, Zoom announced it had picked Oracle as a cloud infrastructure partner to support its rapid growth and evolving business needs as the enterprise video communications company continues to innovate and provide an essential service to its extensive customer base.

CommScope has announced RUCKUS Analytics, a new cloud service that delivers network intelligence and simplifies service assurance, enabling organizations with complex networks to proactively improve their users’ experience.

MATRIXX Software has appointed board member Glo Gordon as the new CEO, succeeding Dave Labuda.

She is to lead the company through its next phase of transformative growth. The transition is expected to take place throughout the month of February. Following the transition, Labuda will remain in the company as a non-executive chairman of the board and senior innovation advisor.

Labuda stated, “It’s been an honor to lead the talented MATRIXX team and I’m excited that Glo will bring her incredible skills and experience to the CEO role as she leads the company forward.”

“I look forward to supporting her as we enter this next chapter,” he added.

Glo Gordon has been a board member at MATRIXX since 2018 and has brought her extensive global leadership experience in enterprise software, OSS/BSS and sales to the table. She has a proven track-record of driving transformative growth and sales.

“It is a privilege to have the opportunity to lead MATRIXX. The company is embracing its greatest opportunity with the rollout of 5G networks across the glove and is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the market with its innovative, cloud-native 5G solutions,” said the new CEO.

Gordon added, “I am excited and humbled to continue the work of establishing the company as the service provider industry’s go-to solution for rapidly standing up new offerings for today’s fast-paced, competitive global economy. Our cloud native technology, along with 5G, presents an amazing opportunity for us to deliver immediate value through our direct sales force and our valued partners.”

She recently served as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Uptake, the industry leader in industrial AI and IoT. Before Uptake, she was the CRO at Jasper, a leading IoT service platform where she made a significant impact on delivering IoT solutions to Service Providers and enterprises on a global scale, before Cisco acquired the company for $1.4 billion.

MATRIXX Software Chairman, David Strohm, said, “The board is confident that Glo’s demonstrated ability to build world-class go-to-market teams and customer relationships will enable us to unlock the full potential of the company’s patented, best-in-class technology, empowering service providers to stand up new offerings quickly in response to their customers’ growing demands, specifically in 5G and cloud.”

“The board extends its deep appreciation and thanks to Dave, who is a proven visionary and has been an exceptional leader, championing a culture of relentless innovation at MATRIXX,” he continued.

TIM Brazil has selected Nokia AirFrame servers featuring new, 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors to virtualize its datacenters by the end of 2021.

TIM is the first operator in Latin America to adopt the AirFrame technology for its datacenter servers to improve server capacity and deliver better service quality, internet access and video consumption for its users across Brazil.

The agreement represents a major step in TIM Brazil’s cloud and digitalization journey, supported by Nokia, as the operator creates advanced services for its customers.

The deployment consists of 1000 state-of-the-art AirFrame servers, virtualizing network functions to guarantee better customer experience. Alongside the creation of edge datacenters, the agreement with Nokia also signals important progress for TIM Brazil as a company as it moves towards 5G, a requirement of which is evolving to a cloud core for network activities.

The 2^nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors were launched globally on 2 April 2019, and this agreement marks the first use of the new generation in Latin America. Nokia and Intel highlighted the capabilities available to customers through this technological partnership at MWC 2019 via a demonstration of VR gaming over a 5G network. 

“Nokia’s unique solution, designed to support precisely this evolution to 5G, will give TIM Brazil a crucial ongoing competitive advantage as they evolve their core networks into cloud. Nokia is proud to partner with TIM as it invests in cloud native technologies to maintain its position as one of Latin America’s most efficient networks,” Said Leandro Monteiro, Nokia Sales Director in Brazil

Leonardo Capdeville, TIM CTIO, said, “Virtualization is important to improve user experience in our network, which will count with more speed and data usage stability. With this core virtualization, TIM is leading with a 5G pilot project over the network. This process also allows us to strengthen our customers’ data protection.”

Lisa Spelman, Vice President and General Manager Intel Xeon Processors and Data Center Marketing, said, “5G communications networks are being built today with a data-centric, edge-enabled approach using high-performance Intel architecture platforms as their foundation. Nokia AirFrame servers featuring 2^nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors give TIM Brazil the opportunity to deliver advanced digital services and compelling experiences to their customers throughout Brazil.”